Francis Catholic Home is a 200 bed capacity “live in” center for persons with disabilities which was motivated from the desire and dream of a foreign priest to reach out to the “weakest and poorest” people of Taiwan.

The center was started by Fr. Franz Burkhardt, a Jesuit missionary from Switzerland. At 89 years old he founded the “home of love,” Sacred Heart Home in Chiayi County to serve persons with severe, multiple mental disabilities. Many people were in need of the services that the center was filled to capacity sooner than expected.

A seasoned centenarian, Fr. Burkhardt perceived the needs of the parents of these children particularly their difficulties and worries of their future. He fearlessly made an ambitious dream to start and build another center, bigger, to accommodate the increasing number of clients. The dream however was not realized for he was called to the Father’s home.

His life story touched the hearts of so many that people from all walks of life were so enthusiastic to participate and support in this noble endeavor. After 7 years of planning and construction a new center was opened in Feb. 21, 2009 at Potz, Chiayi County. In memory of his love, commitment and spirit of service to persons with disabilities the new center was named after him. In Feb. 1, 2010, the Chiayi County government accredited the center. At present we have clients from Taipei City, Kaoshiong City, Taidong County and 10 other counties. We are serving persons with multiple severe, moderate, and mild mental and physical disabilities. We provide health care, diverse leisure activities, work/training activities, community adaptation activities and health education.

The Pearl S. Buck Foundation

Posted on 2015-04-09 00:00:00

Objectives

P

earl S. Buck, a renowned American writer who was awarded with the Nobel and PulitzerPrize, established the Pearl S. Buck Foundation in 1964. The purpose of the organization is to help children who are deprived of proper care and nurture. Subsequently, branches of the association have been established in six different Asian countries in the hope to extend their services to American children.

T

he Taiwan branch was instituted in1968. Supplemented by the head office from United States, the Taiwan branch helped children of mixed parents of American and Asian who reside in Taiwan and are suffering from poverty. In parallel with the trend for globalization, the Taiwan branch strived to establish their independent funds. This was accomplished in November of 1997 and was named as The Pearl S. Buck Foundation, Taipei, Taiwan.

S

ince1999, it was noticed that the number of foreigners who were married to the Taiwanese population was steadily increasing. Language barriers coupled with cultural difference led to serious conflicts amongst the families which constituted of inter-racial marriages. Based on the experience derived from the past 40 years resolving issues pertaining to these inter-racial marriages, in 2000, the Pearl Buck Funds started to provide systematic and comprehensive services to these families.

Purpose

O

n par with Pearl Buck’s compassion towards children in need, the purpose of the organization is to help Taiwanese families, which are built on inter-racial marriages, to transcend cultural differences and to resolve family conflicts. Hence, spouses of foreign ethnicity can become accustomed to living in Taiwan, establish benevolent relationships in marriages and subsequently foster a cultivating environment for their children.

Clientele

Ø Biracial children who are living in poverty

Ø Families built on inter-racial marriages

Hours of Services

Monday to Friday

9:00 A.M.~12:00 A.M

1:00 P.M.~6:00 P.M

Services Include

B

iracial children living in poverty

Øliving subsidies

Øeducational subsidies

Øconduct subsidizing services for sponsors in Taiwan

Øprovide customer services for issues pertaining to citizenship

Øscholarship

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pouses of foreign ethnicity

ØGeneral enquiries: Phone counseling, legal counseling

ØCase management

ØFamily outreach programs and counselling services

ØActivities and educational seminars

New Immigrants Multilingual Services

H

ealth interpretation training program on the new-immigrants：

Trained and arranged Southeast Asian language interpreters in 12 districts of TaipeiCityHealthServiceCenter to enhance Southeast Asian spouse to use the Taipei City Health Promotion Services and provide medical and welfare advice.

T

he interpretation Services of Taipei City New Immigrants’ Hall：

Trained and arranged the interpreters who speak Vietnamese, Thai, Indonesian and English that can provide assistance either in the Hall or on the telephone. They serve as windows to cope with inquiry for resources and services. Telephone, consultation and other services are provided for new immigrants based on questions such as residency, naturalization, health insurance, parenting education, child nursing, and social benefits.

New Immigrant Women Financial Management Program

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ew Immigrant Women Financial Management Program aims to address the financial management needs of new immigrant women and equip them with practical skills in building assets and reducing debts, if applicable, which is a long-term program supported by CiTi Foundation international grant. The annual plan of 2012 focused on need assessment and pilot-run training courses. In 2013, we begin to develop textbooks specified for financial education of new immigrants, hold teacher trainings and expand courses beyond the Greater Taipei. Until now, the courses have produced good results: over 90% trainees have been able to participate in this long-term project and showed that they have absorbed financial knowledge and developed the habits of accounts keeping and budgeting. In the long run, this program aims at digitizing the courses, applying the courses to practices and strengthening the link between the program and the community, expecting to combine the career guidance resources of the community and the government so as to expand the benefits and social influence of the program.

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et’s all help those who are in need and share the joyful experience of helping others.

Morning Light Ministries started in 2008 when Deana Pan received a phone call from her ob/gyn about a 19yr old village girl who was 22weeks pregnant. She came in for an abortion, but he refused. She couldn't go home. Could we help?

It was then that Luke and Deana Pan started Morning Light Ministries. It first started out with a crisis pregnancy center. We offered a safe and healthy environment for women of all ages and backgrounds to hear information they needed, have support they needed and a time to evaluate their plans. Our hope is still that moms don't feel they must only chose abortion. Taiwan has an abortion rate of 300,000-500,000 abortions a year. It is our hope in the crisis pregnancy center that moms have the support and respect no matter the decision they make.

Thru the crisis pregnancy center, we began seeing moms who wanted to keep their babies, but no resources. It was then in when we started our food bank ministry. Our food bank is not for just those in crisis pregnancy situations, but those with a true need. We receive information of a family needing help, we go to their home to talk and see the situation. Then we are able to see how to help them.

Our food is donated by people from all over Taiwan. We distribute a box of blessings every other month. Currently we work with 240 families that equals to over 1000 people. We distribute family boxes, senior citizen boxes and student boxes.

With Taitung City having 10% of its people on welfare, this need for food bank is a great one.

Hualien County Growth Holistic Care Association, “Growth”

Posted on 2015-04-09 00:00:00

Hualien County Growth Holistic Care Association is called “Growth” for short. As the word “Growth”, they expect themselves to help the children with love and care, and hope them grow up well.

The association established 10 “Star light classrooms” in economically-disadvantaged areas and in remote aboriginal villages in Jilong, Yilan, Hualien and Taidong.

The Salvation Army is a registered NPO and has 1,737,613 members worldwide running missions in 126 countries. Initially it commenced to meet the spiritual and physical needs of the poor and destitute in the east of London and has developed into a world-wide evangelical movement that now covers the following major areas of service; health programs, emergency disaster response, education, addiction dependency, services to the community, as well as their churches. In Taiwan it has 5 key mission areas; Puli mission for youth, after school programs for the needy (Tainan, Taichung and Neihu), services for the homeless in Taipei and 5 churches. There are currently 6 centers around Taiwan.

Hondao Senior Citizens’ Welfare Foundation

Posted on 2015-04-09 00:00:00

Hondao Senior Citizen's Welfare Foundation was founded in March 31, 1995 in Taiwan. Since its inception, Hondao has been actively cultivating the field of senior citizen welfare throughout the years. Hondao's core services for senior citizens have included:

Filial Deeds Promotion

Volunteer Services

Home Care Service

Halfway House-Short Stay

Senior Citizen Leisure Activities

Senior Citizen Welfare Services Consultation

TAIWAN SPCA

Posted on 2015-04-09 00:00:00

In cooperation with the Taiwan SPCA, ICRT will be featuring two animals available for adoption every month, including their photos and their bios. Here are cute animals for the month.

Both of these wonderful animals are in need of a good, loving home.

If you are interested in providing a new home to these two beautiful kittens, please visit the Taiwan SPCA web site, www.spca.org.tw, for details.

TIGGER is an 8-month-old male Tabby mix cat. He is extremely affectionate, curious and playful. He’s good around people and tolerates dogs. Tigger has an unusually long tail that makes him look like he could be part of the leopard family. He’s very vocal and often answers when he is called, similar to a dog.

XIAOMEI is a two-year-old female Shiba mix dog. She is very friendly, yet independent with a strong personality.